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MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (Dir: George Miller, 2015).
Visit my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME to read a longer version of this review! Link below.
Tom Hardy takes the lead in this reboot of the popular post-apocalyptic Mad Max franchise.
Although a modestly budgeted Australian production, the original Mad Max (George Miller, 1979) was an enormous box office success and shot star Mel Gibson to international stardom. Mad Max: Fury Road is once again directed by the original series' co-writer and co-creator George Miller.
The movie opens in a futuristic post-apocalyptic wasteland ruled by masked bad dude Immortan Joe (Hugh Keayes-Byrne). Captured by Joe's army and used as a 'bloodbag' by sickly soldier Nux (Brendan McCarthy), our hero Max soon finds himself adorning the hood of Nux's gasoline guzzling vehicle. Nux is in pursuit of Imperator Furiosa who is fleeing Joe with five of his wives in tow, one of whom is heavily pregnant. After some initial misunderstandings(!) Max and Furiosa soon team up to whoop Joe's ass. Which they do in spectacular fashion!
Mad is right; this movie is a bit bonkers! It is also nonstop adrenaline, with breathtaking action set pieces. The pace barely lets up for a second, and while occasionally confusing, it is never dull!
It is also visually stunning; from special effect sets to costumes to John Seale's exquisite cinematography Mad Max: Fury Road has to be one of the best looking blockbusters out there.
It is quite violent and occasionally grizzly. But the movie's overtly stylised and somewhat surreal atmosphere made the violent scenes much more palatable, even to a sensitive soul like me.
Tom Hardy is great in the lead, and makes for a surprisingly sympathetic Max. As the kick-butt Imperator Furiosa, Charlize Theron is Hardy's equal in the action stakes and, refreshingly, of equal importance to the narrative. This lends the movie a welcome feminist angle relatively rare in mainstream action films.
While I found the narrative in Fury Road a little confusing I was ultimately won over by its bonkers charm! Action movies as artistic as this are rare beasts; Mad Max: Fury Road is therefore recommended viewing, even for those who are not especially fond of the genre.
Featured concept art and production design sketches created for Mad Max: Fury Road
1.) A vision of the opening scenes where Max Rockatansky is ambushed and taken prisoner by a gang of War Boys as he is taken to The Citadel.
2.) A glimpse of the battle-ready War Rig rolling out of the Citadel and driven by Imperator Furiosa as she secretly smuggles the Five Wives hidden in the tanker's cargo hold.
3.) An early rendering of Coma the Doof Warrior whose job is to rouse Immortan Joe's army of War Boys by shredding industrial-strength rock music blasting from a massive wall of speakers attached aboard the Doof Wagon.
4.) A wide-angle view of Immortan Joe's war parties chasing Furiosa into the massive sandstorm containing deadly tornadoes and lightning.
5.) A drawing depicting the introduction of the Five Wives, namely: the Splendid Angharad, Capable, The Dag, Toast the Knowing, and Cheedo the Fragile. Note a major difference: in the initial production sketches, the Wives are seen without clothes while bathing after the sandstorm and even Furiosa is among them while just being topless. In the final cut of the film, we see that the Wives are covered in diaphanous white fabric even while hosing themselves down with water and removing their chastity belts and Furiosa is instead seen making repairs to the War Rig rather than joining the Wives during their cleansing session.
6.) A look at the passengers of the War Rig reacting to the violent onslaught brought upon them by Immortan Joe and his allies.
7.) An early design of Immortan Joe flanked by his loyal band of War Boys bathed in moonlight. The final look of Immortan Joe sees the antagonist sporting a full head of long white hair with his breathing apparatus simplified into that of a lower section of an animal skull covering his mouth. The War Boys seen in the film have also seen major changes from the original design concept; doing away with tribal tattoos, studded leather ensembles, and straggly strands of hair in favor of a look defined by distressed utilitarian pants and boots and shirtless upper bodies with their skin slathered in white paint/clay and sporting black grease around their eyes and foreheads, along with variations of grotesque body modifications.